Love is Taking that Dive then Getting Realy Comfortable and Peeing in the Pool

by Phoebe Bain
(District of Columbia, United States)

I love you with my toes
All ten of them.
I love you so much that I’ll grow
An extra toe,
And you will too,
Because I want our total toe number to equal
Your favorite number,
Twenty two.

I love you with my belly buttons
All two of them.
I love you so much
That I would give part of my belly button to you,
Because, as you say,
Mine is probably deep enough
To slice off and brew
Into a second belly hole for you.
So you’d have more of a button
And less of a skin flap of nothin’.

I love you with my cheekbones.
All two of them.
I love you so much that
When you extend and divide your palms
To caress my face
I fill my cheeks with air and
You clap the sides of them
So air quickly stumbles out of my lips
And makes a noise like a fart.
And it sounds like

I love you with my nostrils
All two of them.
Because when we talk a little fast
And share our little laughs
You plug my nostrils and I know what to do,
Yell,
“Ello, govnah!”
Then do the same to you.
I love you with my nostrils
All two of them
Because when I breathe in
The perfumed flowery fragrance
I not only inhale your essence but also

I love you with my teeth
All of them that I don’t feel like counting.
Because sometimes my teeth bump
Against your teeth,
But it’s okay.
Because your teeth glitter
Like the brightness that reflected off
your blue eyes when
We looked up and
The celestial bodies were farting
Down a single star
And the light
Cascading across the sky
scintillated.
scintillated
Like I do when I tell you

I love you with my mind
All one of it.
Because we play a lot of games
And you beat me every time
At scrabble,
At Clue,
At Guess who,
At Pick 5?
Well, hey, at least I know how to rhyme
And I do it for you because

I love you with my ears
All two of them.
Because my favorite sound to hear,
Is one where we both cheer
A quizzical question like
“Where do laps go when we stand up?”
With a revolutionary response like
“Lapland”
I love you with my ears,
Because my favorite sound to hear,
Is

I love you with my body
All one of it
Because in our cramped little pillow fort
You whispered
“Roll, dammit!”
And I did
But I accidentally kicked you in the face
I’m sorry

I love you with all of
these lines,
All two hundred twenty two of
these lines!
They’ve grown lips through letters
and through syntax and words they press against yours
And tell you better than I can
That I love you all the time